I am successfully running ESXi 4.1 with update 1 (installed on a USB memory stick) on a ASUS P8H67-M EVO board with a Core i5-2500 CPU. I was not able to use the onboard Realtek 8111E ethernet controller, using a Intel Pro/1000CT PCIe instead.

When idle the machine consumes only 45 Watts (one SATA disk installed).

Motherboard specifications:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=CkMiq3rrqw3yqO5H

CPU specifications:
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52207,52209,52210
(note the 2500K does not support the VT-d and TXT technologies).

does VT-d work in your setup?

how come hyperthreading is yes?

The vSphere client says "Host does not not support passthrough configuration", and I do not think the EFI bios had any options for this.

Regarding the Hyperthreading = Yes issue, I guess this is a bug in the VMware cpuid program...

Hello,

I wanted to confirm that I am able to run x64bit guest on this hardware. I have configured a CentOS x64 guest and it runs.

My hardware:

ASUS P8H67-M EVO
i7-2600 Intel Quad Core @ 3.4GHz (NOT i7-2600k)
16GB GSkill DDR3 RAM (4x4GB RAM)
2x2TB Hitachi Deskstar 64MB SATA3 (using the onboard SATA3 controller)
Intel GT1000 (pci)
Intel CT1000 (pcie)

I read somewhere that with a custom OEM.tgz file you can enable the onboard NIC but I haven't tried that yet.

When I first booted this host, I could not power on the CentOS VM. But, after I enabled VT in BIOS, it powered on nicely.

Hope this helps,
Mike